"Bikers" vs. people who just own bikes

[Graydog]

Well Blues there a lot of things you have to consider when tagging that label on someone.

In Houston some of my riding buddies were in their late 70s (it was a 55 or over riding group).
One was 82.

Now some of these guys started riding after they came back from Korea. They still have a bike and still ride. But not on rainy days, super hot days, super cold days, and they don't ride every day. They would be stupid to do that. But don't dare tell one of them he (or she) is not a biker. :pissed:

I have a high school friend who bought his first motorcycle on the same day I did, at the same shop. We both left on used 1958 red Jawas. Since then there has never been a single day in this guys life that he did not own a bike. But he has always been a casual rider. To the store and back, weekend rides, etc. But he has always been a biker to me.

I am at that age where I listen to my body more closely than I used too. There are times when the bike doesn't get started for days. My riding it everyday to and from work in good or bad weather days are over. I'm a casual rider now. I probably put only about 100 to 150 miles a week on the bike now.

Like Sarris I do not wear ATGATT. I'm a tee shirt, jeans, half gloves & boots rider. I have added the helmet in the last few years. In the winter I add a leather jacket and full gloves.
I hope by taking it easy at my age I will still be riding at 82. O_o

But I'm a biker. I'm just no longer a "bad ass biker" :lol:

[davidc83]

I ride most of the time. The only time I dont ride anymore is if there is lightening in the area, snow, or temperature is below 30' F. I even went on a 2500 mile bike trip this past March. Started two days after a 13" snow storm here in Southern Indiana. Worst part of this was getting the bike down my 250' driveway with snow packed on the driveway. Used my tractor the day before to clear most of it but still had 4" of snow to get down.

Lightening didnt bother me until a month ago, got caught in a thunderstorm on the way home from work. Ligtening streaked above me and I felt static discharge in both hands and feet.

I rode my gz250 11,000 miles last year in 6 months; bought the C50 last October and have 15,000 miles on it already.
I think this classifies me as a motorcylist (biker) instead of a bike rider :-)

[Easy Rider]

Originally Posted by davidc83

in Southern Indiana.

Whereabouts in S. Indiana?
(Fill in your profile ????)
We are trying to plan a mini-meet in the next couple of weeks, probably somewhere around Charleston/Matoon, IL. The count of attendees is up to TWO already !! :biggrin:

[davidc83]

Scottsburg, Indiana. Planning on going to the Cumberland Gap meet on Sept 26-27.

[Jenny]

My husband hadn't owned a car in ten years until he bought a baja two years ago. Before I moved in with him, he had a motorcycle and a bicycle. He did long trips, short trips, and pick-up-the-chicks trips on his bikes, but by these definitions of a "real" biker, he doesn't qualify.

He's ridden in rain and snow and blizzards, but if he's got a choice, he'll leave the bike home and hitch a ride when the weather's wet. He does trips to the store on his bike, but he saved the recycling for an entire year because he knew I'd be moving in and could haul it to the recycle center in my car so that he didn't have to pack old newspapers on the bike. We were married on the motorcycle, and there are three motorcycles in our garage right now (two of them are mine; his is a 30 year old bike that he's been working on all summer while borrowing my bigger bike when his bike was down). We do some of our own repairs, but not all of them. When we moved to NY from AZ, he sold his bike because it cost more to get it cost country than to get it here, and he wanted a bigger bike (see note about his 30 year old bike that he's loving). We wear all the gear all the time. He doesn't ride if the weather's nasty and he has a choice. He does some of the work on his bike himself but leaves the bigger stuff to the bike shops.

By your definition, I'm also not a biker. I'm just a woman who has a couple of motorcycles in the garage that she takes out sometimes. I am willing to accept that because I love motorcycling and don't give two shits if you feel I'm not good enough to be called a biker. I find it interesting to note that a man who has been riding for twenty years (half his life) but more miles than can even be counted (the last bike he owned had over 35,000 miles, but we've no idea how many miles were on previous bikes), loves motorcycling with a passion, and who it killed to go over a year without a bike also doesn't qualify as a biker by your rules.

I find that this distinction is irrelevant, and there's no real good way to make that separation. There's no reason to try. We're all out there, on the road, enjoying something we love, why does it matter if we do it on the weekends, every day, or just because it's cheaper on gas mileage? When you pass someone on the road, you have no way of knowing if they fit into some arbitrary set of rules someone made up so they could feel they are better than someone else because they're doing it the "real" way so they can claim the title.

[patrick_777]

Originally Posted by Jenny

I find that this distinction is irrelevant, and there's no real good way to make that separation. There's no reason to try. We're all out there, on the road, enjoying something we love, why does it matter if we do it on the weekends, every day, or just because it's cheaper on gas mileage? When you pass someone on the road, you have no way of knowing if they fit into some arbitrary set of rules someone made up so they could feel they are better than someone else because they're doing it the "real" way so they can claim the title.

:plus1: :chop:

[Easy Rider]

Originally Posted by Jenny

I find that this distinction is irrelevant, and there's no real good way to make that separation. There's no reason to try.

:plus1:

Give 'em :curse: , Jenny !! :biggrin:

Who started this anyway ??

[alanmcorcoran]

I'm keeping Jenny in mind if I ever need someone to help me refute the common accusation that I am not a "real man."

She'd have her work cut out for her, but, damn, she can bring it!

PS. I say if you got married on a bike, that's pretty hard core.

[Jenny]

*laughs* We had two weddings. I wanted a drive-thru chapel in Vegas, my partner wanted the big, froofie wedding. We had a big, froofie religious ceremony with a gazillion of our family and friends, then went to Vegas for the legal part at a drive-thru chapel wearing tie-dye and leather on a bike. Good fun!

But we flew to Vegas and rented a bike because it would have taken our entire vacation to get there and back and we had no way of knowing what the weather would be like in advance. We weren't willing to take the chance of getting stuck in lots of rain. We rented a smaller bike (a Honda Shadow 750 or 850 or something like that, it was the smallest bike the rental place had) and the woman who rented it to us thought it was silly that we got such a "tiny" bike for our time in Vegas. She didn't think my husband was a real biker based on the size of his bike. He also wasn't willing to submit himself to two days straight riding on a 535cc bike all the way to Vegas, a day in Vegas, and then two days back in whatever weather happened because he wanted to enjoy his honeymoon without being miserable in the rain. Not a real biker. Me, I wasn't a biker at that point, so I can't be called hard core, and I definitely saw no need to be miserable when we were looking to have a good time.

*smiles* And that's what being on the bike is about whether others see you as a real biker or as a weekend, fair weather, motorcycle owner. You're out there to get on the bike and to ride because you enjoy it, because being on that bike makes you feel good in some way that all the people who've never ridden a bike don't understand.

[prof_stack]

When I put just 4,300 miles on a Sportster over 6 years (!), I just owned a Harley.
When I just put 2,400 miles on a Moto Guzzi over 6 weeks, I am an enthusiast. Perhaps even a biker.